Lamola to engage US lawmakers over Trump’s new visa restrictions

South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has arrived in Washington D.C. in the United States, just days after the Trump administration announced a new visa restrictions policy targeting people it says are responsible for discriminatory policies in South Africa.

Lamola, who has strongly rejected Washington’s allegations, will attend a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation event and hold courtesy meetings with members of Congress, giving Pretoria an immediate opportunity to engage lawmakers as tensions between the two countries again escalate.

South Africa says the measures unfairly target laws designed to address the country’s historic racial inequalities and has defended its sovereign right to pursue those policies.

Lamola’s meetings in the US capital, therefore, provide Pretoria with an important opportunity to make its case directly to US lawmakers.

He then travels to New York for the 81st UN General Assembly, where South Africa is expected to push its broader agenda of multilateralism and reform of global institutions.